1/05/05 & 1/09/05 - “THE ISSUE THAT DIVIDES THE WORLD?” Part 2
Victory Ministries International presents:
Awesome Truths and Amazing Facts  
Treasures of awesome truths from God’s Word 
and facts that affect you!

Hello!  This is Richard Vaughn

Today we will continue with the subject, “THE ISSUE THAT DIVIDES THE WORLD” part 2. But first let us seek God’s guidance, “Heavenly Father, as we open your word today, we need your blessings of wisdom, knowledge and especially understanding so, that we may live according to Your revealed will, in Jesus Name, Amen.”

I am going to keep my pledge, to cry aloud and spare not, to lift up my voice like a trumpet and to show God’s people where they are transgressing God’s law.
I hope you have been listening friends, as we will pick up where we left off last week. You may want to write down the scripture references and study them later. 
To summarize what we have discovered last week is that the problems in the church today is largely due to what God has revealed in Hosea. We have forgotten His law. But obedience to His law is His will for His people.
And God's Law is the basis of the heavenly government. And we know that all responsible governments have laws.
Without law you have anarchy and everybody doing his own thing, so God gives us law that there might be harmony among His people. On the other hand, the devil hates God's law. In heaven he developed within himself pride and covetousness, as he wanted to be like God, he wanted a throne above God.
	He caused the rebellion against God and his government, where sin had never been known before, and he subsequently convinced 1/3 of all the heavenly hosts to join him in rebellion, and ending up cast out of heaven. 
Bringing his rebellion to planet earth, he caused our first parents to lose Eden and began our 6,000 year nightmare.
It has been his studied effort to get people to disregard, neglect or spiritualize away God's law.  And he has nearly been able to accomplish that in today's Christian world.  
If you go back forty or fifty years ago, to any church in America, you could walk in, and in most churches there was a high regard for the Ten Commandments.  These great principles of morality were taught in church and to our young people.  At that time, America enjoyed the status as the greatest moral nation on this earth.
At that time, we had very little crime in this country.  Vulgar language was seldom heard.  Adultery was almost unheard of.  Children obeyed authority.  All of a sudden, since the 1950’s and 60’s, a great change began across Christian American.  
From Christian pulpits things like, "Oh, you don't have to worry about that law any more, that law is not binding."  And "Oh, that law, it was nailed to the cross and abolished.  You don't have to obey those Ten Commandments."  Or "Oh, that's bondage, we're not under that law because we're under grace today."
	Moral decay can find its roots from the religious leaders themselves. That’s why God has a controversy with the pastors, as the blame for the terrible situation in America can be largely laid at their feet. We see the breakdown of marriage and the family, along with the serious problems in education today, problems of a most serious magnitude. 
Many Christian churches have fallen into the trap of listening to the teachings of men rather than the clear words of Scripture.  Here in the last days of this world’s history, there are those who are going to be doing the will of God and following Jesus, and there will be the majority of Christians that will be composed of those following and worshipping the beast power, which is on Satan's side. We're going to find that this is the key issue in the book of Revelation that divides the whole world in the end of time. We want to be sure that as we study the issue that divides the world, that we're on God's side don't we?
	Some people say, "That law was just given to the Jews."  But you'll find out long before the law was given on Mt. Sinai, it had existed from the foundation of this earth. 
Genesis 26:5    We can read way back about Abraham.  "Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws." 
So here's Abraham, keeping God's law, long before the Jews or Moses and Mt. Sinai.  And before Abraham, there was Lucifer himself.  Think about it.  The Bible says that sin, or "iniquity" was found in Lucifer.  He broke three specific commandments that we know of.  First of all, he broke the first commandment where it says, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," because the Bible says he wanted to be like God.  Then he also broke the tenth commandment where it says, "Thou shalt not covet," because the Bible tells us specifically that he coveted the throne of God and said, "I'm going to sit in it no matter what it takes."  He also broke the ninth commandment which says, "Thou shalt not bear false witness" or lie, because he deceived one third of the angels of heaven.   
 	God had to cast Lucifer and one third of the angels out of heaven for breaking His law, and if angels were cast out of heaven for breaking it, now you and I certainly aren't getting into heaven by continuing to willfully break it! That's for sure! Are you listening to me?   
 	Having said this much so far, I want to ask you a very sincere question.  And I want you to answer it honestly.  Do you truly love the truth?  
 	Psalm 119:142  "Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth." 
Verse 151 says, “Thou art near, O Lord; and all thy commandments are truth.”
 If you love the truth, you must love God's law, because it is the truth. Do you see? You can't love the truth without loving God's law.  Do you love and seek after righteousness, which is doing what's right?  
Look at verse 172, "My tongue shall speak of thy word:  for all thy commandments are righteousness." 
Again, if you love truth and righteousness, you've got to love God's commandments because that's what they are.  
Let's continue on in the New Testament and make sure the New Testament agrees as well by turning to Romans.  It doesn't matter what I say, but you need to hear what God says.  And so now we're going to Romans 7:12 and we're going to quote Paul here and see what he says about the law.  
"Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." 
 	There are very few things in the Bible that are called holy.  God is called holy.  And He says the law is holy.  He said His seventh day Sabbath is holy. And we should be careful how we treat holy things.    
	A question that needs to be answered today is, does grace do away with God’s law? I ask that question because most preachers today say it does.
We should quote Jesus, because as long as we follow Jesus, we know we're following the truth. He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."  
We’re going to Matthew 5 and let's see what Jesus had to say about the law and doing the will of the Father.  Jesus' words are so clear we cannot miss it.  
Matthew 5:17-19, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets:  I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” And fufill the righteous requirement of the law He did, being our example, we should follow His steps.
Continuing, For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot (that's like the dot above the letter i) or one tittle (that's like the crossing of the letter t) shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. 
Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven:  
but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."  And he's clearly talking about the ten commandments because verse 21 says, "… thou shalt not kill."  Verse 27 says, "... thou shalt not commit adultery."  
	And Jesus is our example in all things.
James said if we break one, we break them all.
	If we are breaking God’s law, we are in bondage to sin. If we are keeping God’s law, it is liberating. That’s why James calls it the law of liberty, and goes on to say, by it we will be judged.
Let me ask you something and answer this honestly. How can we have confidence in a man who says the Ten Commandment law was done away with? In effect, he's telling me he thinks it is all right to lie, to steal, and to commit adultery. 
	The Bible clearly reveals that God has an absolute standard. No man has the authority to tamper with something that God has written. God's law of Ten Commandments is the eternal, unchangeable standard of right.  They are the basis of the heavenly government.  The psalmist spoke of the eternal nature of God's law in Psalm 111:7,8   
"The works of his hands are verity and judgment; 
 all his commandments are sure.   They stand fast for forever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness."  
Verse 10, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever." That's clear.  Paraphrased, God is telling us that "Those commandments are going to stand forever and ever, and you'll have a good understanding if you keep them."  
 	Some people will say, "I thought the Ten Commandments applied only to the Jews, because God gave it to them on Mt. Sinai."
 	God could only make a revelation of Himself, to a people that were of a heart and mind to hear him. This was not true of the heathen nations. The great messages of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and all the mighty prophets of Old Testament times were addressed to the Jews.  The prophets themselves were Jews.  The writers of the New Testament, with the exception of Luke, were all Jews.  Christ addressed virtually all He said to the Jews.  The epistle of Hebrews was addressed to the Jews.  The epistle of James was addressed to the 12 tribes scattered abroad, and on and on.  
 	The new covenant was made "with the house of Israel"(Jer.31:31, Heb.8:8).  But does the Christian today think that the New Covenant is confined only to the Jew? No!!  Jesus said "Salvation is of the Jews."  But has any Christian been denied salvation because of that fact?  Of course not!  Anyone well acquainted with their Bible knows that the Christian in the New Testament is referred to as a Spiritual Israelite, a spiritual Jew, and is the recipient of all the promises once given to ancient Israel (Rom.2:28,29; Gal.3: 28,29) 
And in the New Covenant for the Christian, that Ten Commandment law, formerly written on stone, God writes in our hearts and minds.   
The commandments of God are the foundation of God's government.  The commandments of God act as the eternal cohesive glue that was meant to hold society together.  They are the foundation for all moral behavior. 
People in the Old Testament weren’t save by keeping the law. They were saved the same way everyone is on this side of the cross. Believers are saved by grace through faith in what Jesus did on the cross and are sanctified in obedience to God’s law. And my brothers and sisters in Jesus, grace never excuses obedience. Never.
 
Time is up for this week, so keep listening each week to awesome truth that will wake up those who really want to go to heaven when Jesus comes. Next week THE ISSUE THAT DIVIDES THE WORLD part 3.

God bless you friends and study your Bibles daily,

Until next week, Jesus said in John 5:39, “Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me”. Even so, Come lord Jesus.